Wow, this is sinking EXTREMELY low, even for American politics and Fox “News”

In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last 48 hours, you’ve heard of the shooting in Aurora, Colorado at The Dark Knight Rises premier, in which James Holmes killed 12 and injured 58. And of course, in times like these people grasp at who or what is to blame. Of course, in the immediate minutes after the attack there was no lack of people blaming Islamic militants. You could be Louie Gohmert, who claims that this shooting was due to the fact that we no longer have mandatory prayer in school and other signs of a growing secular culture. There are those that think that the comic book movies themselves caused this neuroscience student to shoot people.

Then there are the people that worry about exactly the wrong thing after a tragedy like this:

Personally, I’m not going to speculate about why this person did what he did. Nor am I going to give a rat’s ass about whether or not this will affect ticket sales of a movie that will still set box office records. What I will comment on is a lesson we should learn from this, and it’s a lesson we should have learned before, time and again.

In the last two decades, mass shootings seem to have become an epidemic, and it’s only gotten worse, especially in the last few years. We look at these shootings: Columbine, Virginia Tech, Congresswoman Giffords, and now Aurora, Colorado – and we see tragedy. And we should. These are tragedies. But we cry about it for a few days, then apparently forget, the news of dozens dead overshadowed by a celebrity overdose or an sports team underdog making a spectacular win. It’s a tragedy, but what are we supposed to do about it? So we move on.

What’s completely overlooked is the fact that these crimes were committed by completely legal firearms. In this latest shooting, Holmes used this gun, the AR-15, the civilian version of the military’s M-16, which can carry 100 rounds.

And the question we should be asking ourselves instead of why he did it is how it was perfectly legal for him to own this gun. Holmes walked into that theater wearing perfectly legal full-body bulletproof armor, carrying four legally purchased handguns and armed with six thousand rounds of ammo purchased legally online.

What does this AR-15 from Aurora, the extended clip from Arizona, the two semi-automatics in Virginia Tech… what do all of these have in common? They were all legally purchased after the Federal Assault Weapons Ban lapsed in 2004. What else do they all have in common? There is no reason for one person to own these things unless their intent is to shoot as many people as possible as quickly as possible.

You don’t use an AR-15 with 100 rounds to shoot deer. You don’t need 30 rounds in your 9mm for home defense. And because of Virginia’s adamant pro-gun lobby, there was a giant gap between their laws and federal laws mandating that people like the shooter, Seung-Hui Cho, from buying guns after being deemed violently mentally ill.

People are crying out that our time of mourning is not a time of politics. But it’s only a few days later and we’re already forgetting about this incident. The time for pointing out that there is no reason for guns of this type to be legally sold – used for hurting people and nothing else – is now.

One hundred thousand people in America are shot every year. Three people are killed every HOUR. Since Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968, over one million Americans have been killed by gunfire.

In case you weren’t aware, here in Minnesota there is a constitutional amendment on the ballot this November to make gay marriage illegal… well, more illegal, since it’s already illegal, so… illegaller? With that knowledge, it’s amazing how this boy who isn’t even 9 years old has more wisdom than many of Minnesota’s elected officials:

Even better in actual video content:

I swear I’m writing a really big, hopefully meaningful and intelligent post about the Batman shootings, but at the moment the painkillers I’m on are making it hard to concentrate for more than a few minutes at a time. So for the moment please enjoy this tremendous OH SNAP! moment from The Newsroom.

Is Chick-Fil-A anti-gay marriage? “Guilty as charged,” says the company president.

Mitt Romney was on Fox & Friends, the favorite place for peopled up at 6am to go and hear three “fair and balanced” “journalists” report on what the Republican party wants them to report on, and how they wen them to. Don’t believe me? Why would I lie about something that’s obviously caught on tape, with Steve Doocy reading directly from Republican talking points memos. Romney was there defending his decision to not reveal his tax returns.

It’s interesting he brings up John McCain in this video, because as James Carville put it: 

And in relation:

Romney is defending himself by claiming that he’s already doing more than is required of him by law by releasing not just his 2011 but ALSO his 2010 records! Why not release more of his tax records? I mean, at some point the controversy about him not doing so will have done more damage than just releasing them, right? Unless, as Romney’s admitted, he’s used plenty of tax loopholes. And has millions upon millions of dollars stashed overseas. And releasing these records would show how much involvement he had in his other scandal de jour, his time at Bain Capital. And that, it’s even conceivably possible that he legally but most assuredly shadily used loopholes to pay little to NO taxes on given years.

But it’s completely unfair of us to demand to see these tax forms… cries the party that demanded to see Obama’s birth certificate.